Mountain bike Olympic champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot will return to the road next season wearing the colors of Visma Lease-a-Bike. The Frenchwoman has signed a three-year contract with the Dutch team.

Ferrand-Prevot has devoted the past five seasons to her off-road career, but after winning gold in Paris last week, she expressed her desire to win the Tour de France Femme The 32-year-old has been sponsored by Ineos for the past two years, but the British Ineos women's team has never been established.

"Last winter I was thinking about my future after the Olympics. I had been chasing an Olympic medal in mountain biking for 12 years. Now I have achieved that goal. I think it's time for a new challenge in cycling," Ferrand-Prevot said in a statement Wednesday.

"Choosing Team Bizmarise a Bike Women was an easy decision. The team's way of working and professional approach really appealed to me."

Ferrand-Prevot started her professional career with a Dutch team and spent five years with Rabobank, where she was teammate of Marianne Vos. When she became road world champion in Ponferrada in 2014, she had already won La Fresh Wallonne victory and was second overall at the Giro Rosa that same season.

After joining Canyon-SRAM in 2017, Ferrand-Prevot's focus increasingly shifted to off-road, spending 2021 and 2022 with the Team Absolute Absalon BMC mountain bike team, and at the end of 2022 for the 2024 Paris Olympics He became an Ineos rider.

With multiple world titles in mountain biking and the rainbow jersey in cyclocross and gravel, Ferrand-Prevot has his eyes firmly on the road, with the Tour de France Femme at the forefront of his ambitions.

"Women's cycling has come a long way since I left the sport. I can't wait to get back to the peloton." I'm very motivated because I know with the support of my team I can do great things again. I want to win the Tour de France Fam."

Ferrand-Prevot joins a Visma-Lease a Bike roster that includes Vos and two-time cyclo-cross world champion Femme van Empel.

"With her Olympic gold medal, she has perfected mountain biking. I commend her for her bold decision to return to the road with the clear goal of winning the Femme at the Tour de France," said Visma women's team manager Lutger Theisen.

"We give her time to become a road cyclist again. She's the team leader in the Grand Tour, but she'll also be able to compete in the classics in Walloon."

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